Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born on October 17, 1972, in
St. Joseph, Missouri, the only child of Deborah "Debbie" Nelson (1955–2024) and Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. (1951–2019). His mother nearly died during her 73-hour labor with him. Eminem's parents were in a band called Daddy Warbucks, playing in
Ramada Inns along
the DakotasMontana border before they separated. His father abandoned his family when Eminem was a year and a half old, and his mother raised him herself in poverty. Eminem frequently fought with his mother, whom a social worker described as having a "very suspicious, almost
paranoid personality". When he was a child, a bully named D'Angelo Bailey severely injured his head in an assault, an incident that Eminem later recounted on the song "
Brain Damage". Debbie filed a lawsuit against the public school for this in 1982. A
Macomb County, Michigan, judge dismissed the suit the following year, ruling that the schools were immune from lawsuits. Eminem was interested in storytelling, aspiring to be a comic-book artist before discovering
hip-hop. He heard his first rap song, "
Reckless", on the ''
Breakin''' soundtrack, a gift from Ronnie Polkingharn, Nelson's half-brother and Eminem's uncle. His uncle was close to the boy and later became a musical mentor to him. Following Polkingharn's suicide in 1991, Eminem stopped speaking publicly for days and did not attend his funeral. At age 14, Eminem began rapping with high-school friend Mike Ruby; they adopted the names "Manix" and "M&M", the latter evolving into "Eminem". Eminem snuck into neighboring
Osborn High School with friend and fellow rapper
Proof for lunchroom
freestyle rap battles. On Saturdays, they attended open mic contests at the Hip-Hop Shop on West 7 Mile Road, considered "ground zero" for the Detroit rap scene. Struggling to succeed in a predominantly black industry, Eminem was appreciated by
underground hip-hop audiences. When he wrote verses, he wanted most of the words to rhyme; he wrote long words or phrases on paper and, underneath, worked on rhymes for each syllable. Although the words often made little sense, the drill helped Eminem practice sounds and rhymes. In 1987, Nelson allowed runaway Kimberly Anne "Kim" Scott to stay at their home. Several years later, Eminem began an
on-and-off relationship with Scott. After spending three years in ninth grade because of
truancy and poor grades, 17-year-old Eminem dropped out of
Lincoln High School. Although interested in English, Eminem never explored literature, preferring comic books, and he disliked math and social studies. He states that he later received a
GED. Eminem worked at several jobs to help his mother pay the bills, one of which was at
Little Caesar's Pizza in Warren. He later said she often threw him out of the house anyway, often after taking most of his
paycheck. When she left to play bingo, he would blast the stereo and write songs. == Music career ==